Tag: linux

Quad Lasers Deliver Fast, Earth-Based Internet To the Moon

A joint project involving NASA and MIT researchers had demonstrated technology that could supply a lunar colony with broadband via lasers (“faster Internet access than many U.S. homes get”) and has already demonstrated its worth in communications with spacecraft. From ComputerWorld’s article: “The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) kicked off last September with the launch of NASA’s LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer), a research satellite now orbiting the moon. NASA built a laser communications module into LADEE for use in the high-speed wireless experiment. LLCD has already proved itself, transmitting data from LADEE to Earth at 622Mbps (bits per second) and in the other direction at 19.44Mbps, according to MIT. It beat the fastest-ever radio communication to the moon by a factor of 4, 800.” Communicating at such distances means overcoming various challenges; one of the biggest is the variability in Earth’s atmosphere. The LLCD doesn’t try to power through the atmosphere at only one spot, therefore, but uses four separate beams in the New Mexico desert, each aimed “through a different column of air, where the light-bending effects of the atmosphere are slightly different. That increases the chance that at least one of the beams will reach the receiver on the LADEE. Test results have been promising, according to MIT, with the 384, 633-kilometer optical link providing error-free performance in both darkness and bright sunlight, through partly transparent thin clouds, and through atmospheric turbulence that affected signal power.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Quad Lasers Deliver Fast, Earth-Based Internet To the Moon

​1PasswordAnywhere Lets You Access Your 1Password Vault on The Web

1Password is one of our favorite password managers , and it can sync to all your devices via Dropbox. Once you sync your vault of passwords, 1Password actually lets you access them on any device—without installing the app. Read more…

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​1PasswordAnywhere Lets You Access Your 1Password Vault on The Web

Almost 100 Arrested In Worldwide Swoop On Blackshades Malware

MattSparkes (950531) writes “Law enforcement around the world has teamed-up to arrest 97 for buying/using Blackshades malware, which can remotely seize control of a victim’s computer, access documents, record keystrokes and even activate their webcam to take surreptitious pictures and video. It is also able to encrypt files in order to extract a ransom for their release. Blackshades RAT is a commercial product costing less than $200 which was marketed as a tool to test network security. However, it is widely used by hackers and was even said by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to have been used against Syrian activists by the government in 2012.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Almost 100 Arrested In Worldwide Swoop On Blackshades Malware

Static Electricity Defies Simple Explanation

sciencehabit writes: “If you’ve ever wiggled a balloon against your hair, you know that rubbing together two different materials can generate static electricity. But rubbing bits of the same material can create static, too. Now, researchers have shot down a decades-old idea of how that same-stuff static comes about (study). ‘[The researchers] mixed grains of insulating zirconium dioxide-silicate with diameters of 251 micrometers and 326 micrometers and dropped them through a horizontal electric field, which pushed positively charged particles one way and negatively charged particles the other. They tracked tens of thousands of particles—by dropping an $85, 000 high-speed camera alongside them. Sure enough, the smaller ones tended to be charged negatively and the larger ones positively, each accumulating 2 million charges on average. Then the researchers probed whether those charges could come from electrons already trapped on the grains’ surfaces. They gently heated fresh grains to liberate the trapped electrons and let them “relax” back into less energetic states. As an electron undergoes such a transition, it emits a photon. So by counting photons, the researchers could tally the trapped electrons. “It’s pretty amazing to me that they count every electron on a particle, ” Shinbrot says. The tally showed that the beads start out with far too few trapped electrons to explain the static buildup, Jaeger says.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Static Electricity Defies Simple Explanation

Your Old CD Collection Is Dying

Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes “Adrienne LaFrance reports at the Atlantic that f you’ve tried listening to any of the old CDs lately from your carefully assembled collection from the 1980’s or 1990’s you may have noticed that many of them won’t play won’t play. ‘While most of the studio-manufactured albums I bought still play, there’s really no telling how much longer they will. My once-treasured CD collection — so carefully assembled over the course of about a decade beginning in 1994 — isn’t just aging; it’s dying. And so is yours.’ Fenella France, chief of preservation research and testing at the Library of Congress is trying to figure out how CDs age so that we can better understand how to save them. But it’s a tricky business, in large part because manufacturers have changed their processes over the years and even CDs made by the same company in the same year and wrapped in identical packaging might have totally different lifespans. ‘We’re trying to predict, in terms of collections, which of the types of CDs are the discs most at risk, ‘ says France. ‘The problem is, different manufacturers have different formulations so it’s quite complex in trying to figure out what exactly is happening because they’ve changed the formulation along the way and it’s proprietary information.’ There are all kinds of forces that accelerate CD aging in real time. Eventually, many discs show signs of edge rot, which happens as oxygen seeps through a disc’s layers. Some CDs begin a deterioration process called bronzing, which is corrosion that worsens with exposure to various pollutants. The lasers in devices used to burn or even play a CD can also affect its longevity. ‘The ubiquity of a once dominant media is again receding. Like most of the technology we leave behind, CDs are are being forgotten slowly, ‘ concludes LaFrance. ‘We stop using old formats little by little. They stop working. We stop replacing them. And, before long, they’re gone.'” You can donate CDs to be tested for aging characteristics by emailing the Center for the Library’s Analytical Science Samples. I haven’t had much trouble ripping discs that were pressed in the 80s (and acquired from used CD stores with who knows how many previous owners), but I’m starting to get nervous about not having flac rips of most of my discs. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Your Old CD Collection Is Dying

Can Thunderbolt Survive USB SuperSpeed+?

Lucas123 writes: “The USB SuperSpeed+ spec (a.k.a. v3.1) offers up to 10Gbps throughput. Combine that with USB’s new C-Type Connector, the specification for which is expected out in July, and users will have a symmetrical cable and plug just like Thunderbolt but that will enable up to 100 watts of power depending on the cable version. So where does that leave Thunderbolt, Intel’s other hardware interconnect? According to some analysts, Thunderbolt withers or remains a niche technology supported almost exclusively by Apple. Even as Thunderbolt 2 offers twice the throughput (on paper) as USB 3.1, or up to 20Gbps, USB SuperSpeed+ is expected to scale past 40Gbps in coming years. ‘USB’s installed base is in the billions. Thunderbolt’s biggest problem is a relatively small installed base, in the tens of millions. Adding a higher data throughput, and a more expensive option, is unlikely to change that, ‘ said Brian O’Rourke, a principal analyst covering wired interfaces at IHS.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Can Thunderbolt Survive USB SuperSpeed+?

7.1 Billion People, 7.1 Billion Mobile Phone Accounts Activated

Freshly Exhumed (105597) writes “Tomi Ahonen’s newly released 2014 Almanac reveals such current mobile phone industry data gems as: ‘The mobile subscription rate is at or very very nearly at 100%. For 7.1 Billion people alive that means 7.1 Billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide.’ Compared with other tech industries, he says: ‘Take every type of PC, including desktops, laptops, netbooks and tablet PCs and add them together. What do we have? 1.5 Billion in use worldwide. Mobile is nearly 5 times larger. Televisions? Sure. We are now at 2 Billion TV sets in use globally. But mobile has 3.5 times users.’ Which mobile phone OS is the leader? ”Android has now utterly won the smartphone platform war with over 80% of new sales. Apple’s iPhone has peaked and is in gradual decline at about 15% with the remnant few percent split among Windows, Blackberry and miscellaneous others.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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7.1 Billion People, 7.1 Billion Mobile Phone Accounts Activated

Bloomberg: Microsoft Readying Small Qualcomm and Intel Powered Surfaces

Bloomberg claims that Microsoft is readying a new, smaller version of its Surface tablet which will use Qualcomm chips and another, larger device that will be powered by Intel silicon. Read more…

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Bloomberg: Microsoft Readying Small Qualcomm and Intel Powered Surfaces

Stanford Bioengineers Develop ‘Neurocore’ Chips 9,000 Times Faster Than a PC

kelk1 sends this article from the Stanford News Service: “Stanford bioengineers have developed faster, more energy-efficient microchips based on the human brain – 9, 000 times faster and using significantly less power than a typical PC (abstract). Kwabena Boahen and his team have developed Neurogrid, a circuit board consisting of 16 custom-designed ‘Neurocore’ chips. Together these 16 chips can simulate 1 million neurons and billions of synaptic connections. The team designed these chips with power efficiency in mind. Their strategy was to enable certain synapses to share hardware circuits. … But much work lies ahead. Each of the current million-neuron Neurogrid circuit boards cost about $40, 000. (…) Neurogrid is based on 16 Neurocores, each of which supports 65, 536 neurons. Those chips were made using 15-year-old fabrication technologies. By switching to modern manufacturing processes and fabricating the chips in large volumes, he could cut a Neurocore’s cost 100-fold – suggesting a million-neuron board for $400 a copy.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Stanford Bioengineers Develop ‘Neurocore’ Chips 9,000 Times Faster Than a PC

FCC Proposes $48,000 Fine To Man Jamming Cellphones On Florida Interstate

New submitter freddieb writes: “An individual who had been jamming cellphone traffic on interstate 4 in Florida was located by FCC agents with the assistance of Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputies. The individual had reportedly been jamming cellphone traffic on I-4 for two years. The FCC is now proposing a $48, 000 fine for his actions. They say the jamming ‘could and may have had disastrous consequences by precluding the use of cell phones to reach life-saving 9-1-1 services provided by police, ambulance, and fire departments.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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FCC Proposes $48,000 Fine To Man Jamming Cellphones On Florida Interstate